That He Might Show His Grace

In this part of the sermon: Using a simple story about a man driving to buy bread, Martin explains that 'that' (in order that) introduces the explicitly stated goal of all God's saving activity. He…

Martin constructs an extended analogy to explain the grammatical function of 'that' (in order that): John, hungry, drives three miles, changes a flat tire, and arrives at the store in order to purchase a loaf of bread. Every earlier action - the driving, the tire change - serves the purpose stated in the final clause. Just so, all of God's saving acts in Ephesians 2:4-6 serve the purpose stated in verse 7.

Suppose I were to make the statement something like this. John, conscious of his own hunger and desiring to have some food for himself and his friends, got into his car, drove three miles to the nearest store, changed the flat tire on the way, and finally arrived at the store in order to purchase a loaf of bread. Now if I asked you the question from this simple statement, it's a rather long sentence, but it's simple, it's not complicated. If I were to ask you what was John's purpose in leaving the house, you would say his purpose is defined in this phrase,

6:07 - 6:48 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Whitefield and Wesley and Spurgeon could indeed preach the gospel better than I shall ever preach it, but they could not, nor shall any man ever be able to preach a better gospel, a gospel that has as its explicit goal t…

Martin reads at length from Spurgeon, who said Ephesians 2:7 was 'a great deal too full for me,' compared it to a walled city with towers and bulwarks he could not adequately describe, said he could preach from it for twelve months without running short, called it 'a vast and fruitful country, a land of hills and valleys, a land of fountains and brooks of water,' and concluded that 'Whitefield and Wesley could not preach a better gospel.'

The Lord willing today and next Lord's day, it will be my attempt to open up this text, though I must confess when late last night after my preparation was basically in hand as far as the form and structure is concerned, I turned to Spurgeon to read a sermon on this text and this is what he said as he stood before this text in the presence of God and the Lord's people. This morning I have before me a text which is a great deal too full for me. I can never draw out of it all its supplies. I've gone round the walls of this city text and counted its towers and marked well its bulwarks and I'm utt...

12:20 - 13:04 Read in full sermon

Driving home: It is not grace eclipsing justice, but grace contriving a way for justice to exhaust its demands in the rescuing of rebel sinners.

Martin explains 'display' through two images: display windows are always on the street side, never in a back alley, because they put things of worth where people can see them; museum jewel cases are lit to bring out the inherent beauty of rare gems and are never filled with garbage. To display something is to put something of intrinsic worth in a relationship to others where it can be seen, appreciated, and admired.

was given its fullest and its most complete expression and standing as capstone over every exercise of every attribute of the living God in the redemption of sinners is the capstone of grace, in order that He might display His grace. Now look at the word display. What is a display window? You kids, when you go window shopping with Mom and Dad at Willowbrook, and you go by all those fancy shops and you look at the display windows, what's the purpose of a display window?

23:19 - 23:57 Read in full sermon

Driving home: In the scheme of salvation by Jesus Christ, His purpose was to put His grace in the display case for men and angels, yes, and even reprobates and devils to see, and to force the reprobates and devils to acknowledge with …

Martin identifies believers - described in Ephesians 2:1-3 as dead, bound by the world, flesh, and devil, lying under curse and wrath - as God's deliberately chosen display case for grace. The very unlikeliness of such a display case makes the grace more striking: God took the worst possible material and said 'that's going to be My display case of My grace throughout the ages to come.'

In the scheme of salvation by Jesus Christ, His purpose was to put His grace in the display case for men and angels, yes, and even reprobates and devils to see, and to force the reprobates and devils to acknowledge with bent knee the glory of that display and to capture the hearts of all the redeemed before the amazing measure of that display. And my friend, you know what His display case is? The likes of you and me. He took dead sinners,

25:00 - 25:45 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin presents three interpretive options for 'the coming ages': the present church age between the advents; the eternal age after Christ's return only; or all future time from…

Martin vividly pictures the city: Diana's temple still standing, crowds crying 'Great is Diana of the Ephesians,' practitioners of curious arts and witchcraft. Into that seat and citadel of paganism, God planted a people gathering in New Testament simplicity to praise Jesus Christ. The church at Ephesus is a living historical showcase of the power of grace - grace that can transform a pagan city into a worshiping community.

So some say, alright, the plural, ages, obviously refers to periods of time, and we read here in Ephesians 3 and verse 10, that now unto the principalities and powers will be made known through the church the manifold wisdom of God. And they argue, Paul is saying that God is determined that between the first advent of Christ and the second advent of Christ, here in a world full of sin and ungodliness and impiety and irreligion, God will have showcases of His amazing grace. There at Ephesus, while Diana's temple still stands, and while multitudes of the Ephesians

28:27 - 29:11 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin presents three interpretive options for 'the coming ages': the present church age between the advents; the eternal age after Christ's return only; or all future time from…

To critique the view that God's display is only for the present age, Martin asks: if a believer is now only a one-eighth carat diamond, what will he be when glorified to five carats? If God wants us in the showcase now in our diminished state, how much more will he want us then? And to critique the view that display is only for the future age: am I not a display case now? The analogy exposes why only the comprehensive view - now and into eternity - does justice to the text.

It doesn't violate any language, but does it do justice to the language? Is God's use of you and me as a display case of grace to end when the Savior comes? The Bible says all I have of what grace has provided now is a little down payment. Well, if I'm a showcase and all I am is a one-eighth carat diamond, what will I be when I'm five carats?

29:53 - 30:21 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin shows that the 'that' of verse 7 connects back to everything God has done in verses 4-6. He uses both the pagan Ephesians (rescued from Diana worship) and Paul the Pharisee…

Martin contrasts the raw pagan Ephesian worshiper of Diana with Paul - 'the proud Pharisee, the externalist, the Jew who thought his task in life was to obliterate the very remembrance of Jesus Christ from off the face of the earth.' God has one salvation for both. He takes the full spectrum from raw paganism to cultured religionist and makes each a showcase of the same grace in Christ.

Paul says, Us, here he was the proud Pharisee, the externalist, the Jew who thought his task in life was to obliterate the very remembrance of Jesus Christ from off the face of the earth. And he says whether God takes the raw pagan who's worshiping Diana or the ignorant Jew who worships he thinks, Jehovah, when in reality he's a blasphemer and a murderer according to his own words. What does God do? He has no two salvations, one for Jew, one for Gentile.

36:04 - 36:39 Read in full sermon

The point: The display of grace requires the backdrop of sin and evil. This does not resolve every philosophical question about God and evil, but it gives the believing heart a place to rest when wrestling with why God permitted it…

Martin references slides of Pakistan shown earlier in the service, noting the missionary's restraint in not showing the worst squalor, and uses the reality of visible poverty plus the existence of an everlasting hell as the full weight of the problem: how can a good, sovereign God permit such evil? This grounds the theological discussion in pastoral and missional reality rather than abstract philosophy.

If God is sovereign and God is good, how could a sovereign God who can do anything, that means he can permit anything, he can hinder anything, and a God who is good permit evil in his world when evil brings not only all of the tragedy that we see with our own eyes, and that we saw on those slides this morning, and we saw even the better side of Pakistan. I appreciate the fact that our brother did not prey upon our sensitivities by showing us the filth and the squalor that he could well have shown us without too much trouble, and then add to that the reality of an everlasting hell. My friends,

43:40 - 44:23 Read in full sermon

The point: When believers come to worship, they should be gripped by something larger than personal aches and petty problems. They are caught up in God's cosmic purpose of vindicating his character before the whole moral universe.

Martin retells the Eden temptation as fundamentally a conflict about God's character: God says 'I am good, leave the tree alone'; the tempter says 'God is not good, he is mean, leave the tree alone.' The issue was not Adam's taste buds or the fruit itself - it was the question 'What is God really like?' This same conflict runs through all of history until its final resolution at the return of Christ.

contains an important principle with reference to the end of all of God's works both in nature and in grace. From Genesis to Revelation, God is committed to one great thing. He is going to vindicate His character upon His earth. That was the great conflict in the Garden of Eden.

46:10 - 46:36 Read in full sermon

The point: Suffering is the crucible in which faith is purified so that God's grace shines more brightly in the showcase. Enduring suffering while still praising God vindicates his character before watching eyes.

Martin briefly retells how Job's wife urged him to curse God after his losses, and Job's counter-response: 'The Lord gives, the Lord takes. I shall not question his right nor his goodness. Blessed is the name of the Lord.' God was glorified and his character vindicated by Job's patient endurance - an illustration of how suffering believers function as showcases of grace before watching eyes.

God's character is vindicated. Look at Job. His wife came along and says, God treats you like that. Man, have nothing to do with him.

48:51 - 48:59 Read in full sermon

The point: The vision of God's glory filling the new creation - every footstep echoing with praise - is the proper motivation for missionary work. The missionary goes because God has showcases of his grace in every nation, includin…

Martin paints a picture of life in the new heavens and new earth: wherever a believer walks (or flies), each footstep echoes with praise to God; every person he meets is living wholly for the praise of God. This vision of a world wholly devoted to God's glory is presented as the true motivation for missions - the missionary goes because God has showcases for his grace in every nation.

Praise God! Every person he meets, every individual he touches will be living to nothing but the praise of his God. That's what gives impetus to missions. What drives our brother to go back to that land?

50:43 - 51:03 Read in full sermon